Page:Arminell, a social romance (1896).djvu/386

378 throwing a book at you, then I did begin to believe you were not right in your mind; now I'm sure of it."

Captain Saltren looked dreamily at her; but in that dreamy look was pain.

"That was, to be sure, a wonderful tale," pursued Mrs. Kite, losing patience with him. "An angel from Heaven cast the Everlasting Gospel down to you, was that it?"

He nodded, but said nothing.

"And I seed Miss Arminell do it."

His eyes opened wide with alarm.

"What the name of the book was, I do not mind; indeed, I do not know, because I cannot read; but I have got the book, and can show it you, and you who are a scholar can read it through from the first word to the last."

"You have the book?"

"I have; when it fell it went under your raft, but it did not sink, it came up after on the other side, and when you were gone I fished it out, and I have it now."

"It was red as blood."

"Aye, and the paint came off on my fingers, but I dried it in the sun; and I have the book now, not in the Owl's Nest, but in a cupboard of the back kitchen o' my old house."

"His likeness was on it."

"That I can't say. There is a head of a man."

"The head of Lord Lamerton."

"It don't look like it; the man has black hair and a beard, and his lordship had no beard, and his hair was light brown."

A shudder came over the captain. Was his last, his firmest anchor to break?

Again, as he had done several times already, he passed his hands over his arms and shoulders and sides, as if peeling off what adhered to him.

"Let me see the book," he said faintly. "Lead on."